"Donald best not utter his name as"- Morgan J. Freeman says Trump being inaugurated on MLK Day is "deplorable"

Filmmaker Morgan J. Freeman recently shared his thoughts about President-elect Donald Trump taking office on Martin Luther King Junior (MLK) Day on January 20, 2025. Trump became the third president to share his inauguration ceremony with the federal holiday, following Barack Obama in 2013 and Bill Clinton in 1997.

On January 14, 2025, Morgan J. Freeman took to X to condemn Trump's inauguration ceremony being held on MLK Day, calling it "deplorable." He added that the incoming president "best not utter" MLK's name during his inauguration, writing:

"I can't think of anything more deplorable than Donald Trump's illegitimate inauguration occurring on Martin Luther King Day. MLK spent his life fighting racism -- working to remove the likes of Trump from American politics. He was murdered for it. Donald best not utter his name as."

According to his IMDb profile, Morgan J. Freeman is known for directing movies like Just Like A Son and Desert Blue. Freeman, who describes himself as a "Human Rights & Racial Justice Advocate and Abolitionist" in his X bio, frequently condemns the incoming president on social media, dubbing him a "traitor" and "insurrectionist."

In his latest post, pinned to his X page at the time of this article, Freeman called the incoming president a "disgusting slab of fetid beef," following which he listed ten points for why he feels Trump is unfit to be the president.

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MLK's daughter is "glad" that Trump's inauguration falls on the federal holiday

Dr. Bernice King, Martin Luther King Junior's youngest daughter, said she was "glad" that Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony fell on the day used to honor her father. In a November 2024 interview with the Independent, Bernice said:

“I’m glad that if it was going to happen, it happened on the King holiday, because Dr King is still speaking to us. We cannot retreat or recoil. We have to commit ourselves to continuing the mission of protecting freedom, justice and democracy in the spirit of my father."

She added that she had hoped Vice President Kamala Harris won the 2024 election, describing the president-elect as someone "spewing hateful rhetoric, who’s not been very kind-hearted and whose policies are not humane in their approach." Bernice King also said that while many were angry with the election's outcome, they should not let the result "rot" in them.

She added that her father's words, "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred," comforted her in the days following the election. The line was from Dr. King's I Have A Dream speech he gave in 1963.

President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony will start on January 18 with a fireworks display at his golf club in Virginia. On January 19, a MAGA Victory Rally is scheduled at the Capital One Arena. The incoming president and his Vice President-elect, JD Vance, will be sworn in on January 20 at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., following a performance by singer Carrie Underwood.

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For the unversed, MLK Day has been celebrated on the third Monday of every January since 1986, 18 years after the civil rights activist was assassinated in 1968. President Ronald Reagan was the first to coin MLK Day a federal holiday to honor King's work to end racial discrimination in the US.

Meanwhile, January 20 is dubbed the inaugural day for any incoming president according to the 20th Amendment of the US Constitution. The date is pushed to January 21 in the event of January 20, occurring on a Sunday.